Around thirty-one Rohingya Muslims are literally stuck at no man’s land behind the barbed wire fencing along with the Bangladesh border in Tripura, India, since Friday, with an ongoing blame-game between the border guards of the two nations over Rohingya’s refuge.
According to Times of India news reports, the BSF (Border Security Force) officials said nine women, six men along with sixteen children were detained by the BGB (Border Guards Bangladesh) and were stood behind the wire fencing at Rayermura in West Tripura district, around 15 km from the border.
While the BGB claimed that Rohingyas were coming from India, the BSF totally denied the claim. Both the sides have tried to resolve the problem and met twice since Saturday, but failed to reach an outcome to the issue.
On Sunday, BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) CL Belwa told PTI: “They are stranded between the international border and the barbed wire fencing for last 48 hours. They tried to enter Indian Territory from Bangladesh side and we stopped them.”
The DIG said: “We are supplying water and other basic needs from our own resources to the Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds since last night.”
Despite the BGB’s claim that Rohingyas were from India, the BSF said there was no tell-tale sign of breach of fencing on the Indian side.
On Friday, around at 8:30 pm, BGB commanding officer Lt Col Gomal Kabir had called upon BSF commandant Ratnesh Kumar to inform them that it had arrested 31 Rohingya Muslims at the border.
Belwa told reporters: “BGB commanding officer insisted that the BSF take those Rohingyas inside the Indo-Bangladesh border fencing. Commanding Officer BGB also alleged that BSF has been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladesh territory.”
Belwa said: “We were expecting that BGB will contact us for a flag meeting. But they did not contact us, rather we contacted them and yesterday 12 o’clock, an officer level meeting was conducted at zero lines.”
Belwa has said to resolve the issue, the BSF has offered the BGB to join a survey on the Indian side in order to identify any signs of a breach in the fencing.
However, the BGB authority refused the offer and stuck at their demand that India must take the Rohingyas back into the Indian Territory. On Sunday, a battalion commander level meeting was held.
Belwa said, “The BGB battalion commander was of the same view that Rohingyas came from the Indian side. We have denied their allegations and said there is no tell-tale sign of breach of a fence on the Indian side.”